Equinox billboard raises hackles of Greenwich Village watchdog

Greenwich Village residents aren’t happy about a three-story Equinox billboard splashed across the side of their 97 Greenwich Avenue location.

This is the high-end gym’s second offense on the billboard front, according to an email from the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation’s Andrew Berman. The first occurred in 2010, when Equinox posted similarly giant billboards on their building, skirting requirements for permits from the Landmarks Preservation Commission and Department of Buildings.

“Like four years ago, GVSHP has reached out to Equinox and its corporate parent Related Companies to urge them to remove the billboard, and we have reached out to city agencies, which have issued multiple violations to the scofflaws,” Berman wrote in the email.

The sign, GVSHP contends, is out-of-place in the Greenwich Village Historic District — a 13-block area bordered by Washington Street to the north, Sixth Avenue to the west, West Houston Street to the south and La Guardia Place to the east. The neighborhood watchdog is circulating a petition urging the heads of Equinox and Related to remove the billboard. — Julie Strickland